The Transformation Of Cristiano Ronaldo From Childhood To 36

May 2024 · 2 minute read

José Dinis Aveiro's other gig would change his family's life forever. As Goal recounted, Cristiano Ronaldo's dad also happened to work as a kitman for CF Andorinha, the soccer team of Santo António in Funchal, and the young future sports star often tagged along. It was at Andorinha that Aveiro befriended player Fernão Barros Sousa, who was captain of the team at the time. "He had the bags with the footballs and Cristiano would be with his father, with a ball in hand and playing with the ball. He tried to dribble and obviously he copied the older players. He did that a lot," Sousa recalled. 

Sousa's influence proved vital on the young boy. After growing up watching his godfather play, Ronaldo himself started playing for Andorinhas in 1992, when he was just seven years old. Even at that age, Ronaldo's abilities were obvious, and as former teammate Ricardo Santos said in Goal, he went by "abelhinha," which is Portuguese for little bee. "[H]e was small and he was very quick, so we called him 'abelhinha,'" Santos told the outlet.

Soccer consumed most of Ronaldo's time. He even neglected school work to play, Sousa recalled. Rui, a groundsman for the club at the time, also remembers Ronaldo's fixation. "It wasn't easy to get the ball off him. He was very small, but he was always playing football. He never stopped. He was always playing, at home as well," he shared with Goal.

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